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PUPILS at Welsh-medium and faith schools will not benefit from new rules about free school buses because of a legal loophole, it was warned yesterday.

Children will get free transport if they live two or more miles from the nearest suitable primary school and three miles from their secondary school.

But it will be up to councils whether they offer free transport to Welsh-medium or faith schools.

Proposals by the Assembly government for a Learner Travel Measure would not change the current law which does not entitle pupils at such schools to free buses.

Deputy First Minister Ieuan Wyn Jones was questioned by AMs on the Assembly’s Enterprise and learning committee yesterday.

Shadow education minister Alun Cairns said: “I find it extremely difficult to accept that we have a Plaid Cymru minister coming to the first measure committee on which the minister has competence over, to propose legislation that does not afford Welsh-language pupils or Welsh-medium education pupils the same privileges as those that are afforded to English-medium pupils.

“Surely there must be a way of overcoming this? Are there not other ways of achieving the same goal?”

Mr Jones, the minister responsible for the economy and transport, said: “If there is a way of doing it of course, we would like to do it, but there are difficulties.

“The point that we have to look at is if we introduce it for Welsh-medium education and faith schools we have to introduce it for English-medium education as well.”

He told AMs he and his officials would prepare a paper for the committee on the issue.

The proposals were published by Mr Jones’s predecessor Brian Gibbons in June, before Labour and Plaid went into coalition.

They also enable councils to stagger school start times to ease congestion during the school run and give headteachers more power to punish children who misbehave on buses.